Murray Weidenbaum was born on February 10, 1927.  Weidenbaum holds various degrees including the following, B.B.A from City College of New York (1948), M.A. from Columbia University (1949), Ph.D. from Princeton University (1958), and honorary LL.D.s from Baruch College (1981), University of Evansville (1983), and McKendree College (1993).

Murray Weidenbaum’s economic career began in 1948 at the New York State Department of Labor as a junior economist (1948 – 1949).  Since that time he worked as an economist for the U.S. Bureau of the Budget (1949 – 1957), the corporate economist at The Boeing Company (1958 – 1963), and a senior economist at the Stanford Research Institute (1963 –1964).

In 1964 Professor Weidenbaum joined the faculty at Washington University, and as of 2006 serves as Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor.  From 1966 – 1969 he also served as chair of the Economics Department.  In 1975 he founded the Center for the Study of American Business (CSAB), serving as director for most of 1975 to 2000.  Upon retiring from the directorship at the end of 2000, Dr. Weidenbaum became Honorary Chair of the renamed Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy.

Weidenbaum’s professional experience has been recognized with many awards and honors, including: The Founder’s Day Medal, from Washington University; the Distinguished Writers Award, from the Center for Strategic and International Studies; the Alexander Hamilton Award, for distinguished leadership in the Department of Treasury; the Adam Smith Award from the Association of Private Enterprise Education; and membership in the Missouri Academy of Squires.  He is a fellow of the National Association of Business Economists, Honorary Fellow of the Association for Technical Communication, and a past president of the Midwest Economic Association.

Weidenbaum served in various capacities under the Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush presidential administrations. Under President Nixon, Dr. Weidenbaum served as the first Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy (1969 – 1971).  Weidenbaum served as chairman of President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) from January 1981 to August 1982. Also during the Reagan administration, Weidenbaum served as a member of the President’s Economic Policy Advisory Board (1982 – 1989). During the administration of George H. W. Bush, he served as a member of the Clean Air Act Advisory Committee (1991 – 1994). Also during the Bush administration, he served as a member of the Presidential Mission to Poland in 1989.

Weidenbaum was also involved in Congressional Committees.  In 1995 he was appointed to the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, Revenue Estimating Advisory Board (1995 – 1998).  During 1999 – 2000, he chaired the congressionally-appointed Trade Report Review Commission.  He has presented over 60 statements and testimony to Congressional Committees, on topics ranging from the “Economic Effect of Vietnam Spending” (1967) to “Replacing the Federal Income Tax” (1995).  Please see the Washington University Library Catalog for relevant government documents.

Since 1979, Weidenbaum has served on the board of several large U.S. companies, including the May Department Stores (1979 – 1999) and Tesoro Petroleum (1992 – 2002). He also was a member of advisory boards of Mattel and Monsanto.

Author and co-author of several hundred articles, numerous monographs, and nine books in multiple editions, Weidenbaum is one of America’s most widely quoted economists.  His articles have appeared in publications ranging from The American Economic Review to The Wall Street Journal.  In 2005, Dr. Weidenbaum published the monograph, Advising Regan: Making Economic Policy 1981-1982 (Washington University in St. Louis: Weidenbaum Center).  His books include Business and Government in the Global Marketplace (7th edition 2004, Prentice-Hall) and Small Wars, Big Defense (1992, Oxford UP) which was selected as the Outstanding Economic Book of the Year by the American Publishers Association Advisory Panel.

For further biographical information see the web site for The Weidenbaum Center at Washington University in St. Louis and his vita located within the collection in Series 01, Biographical Data.